Hand injury rules Sheahan out of McLoughlin showdown

HOPES of getting Roy Sheahan to Athens for next week’s Olympic qualifying tournament were abandoned yesterday when it was ruled that his damaged hand would not be sufficiently recovered for an 11th-hour box-off with Willie McLoughlin (Illie GG).

Donegal man McLoughlin won the final against welterweight, John Joe McDonagh (Brosna), in the box-offs which were staged among the senior championship semi-finalists after the Olympic qualifying event in Pescara.

But before that fight both camps agreed to a box-off with Sheahan — who was nursing a broken hand sustained in the pre-Pescara training camp in Italy — although it is understood that any such deal was later disputed.